The Rise and Fall of Heroes
by Miss Mysty
Summary: Two years after Kotetsu joins the B Team Heroes, Kaede takes her place among Hero TV's top-billed stars.  When she comes into contact with a NEXT capable of enhancing powers, however, she turns to keeping her father happy about his newly-restored ability.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The night was brightly lit as the helicopters for Hero TV followed their stars, shouting out commentary as they went. It was a big night for them; not only was it the premiere of the new season, but they were finally able to release their shiny new Hero onto the public. They'd been hinting all the previous season about a young, up-and-coming star that was in training before joining them. They'd made such a big deal out of all of it that the other Heroes had almost felt certain the public didn't believe it could live up to all the hype.

As Kaede Kaburagi, codenamed Tiger-chan, came skating along the street though, you wouldn't need super hearing to know cheers were coming up all over Sternbild.

"And here she is!" The announcer was just as enthusiastic as ever. "Our new Hero, Tiger-chan! As many of you are aware, Tiger-chan is the daughter of Wild Tiger, former member of the A-Team Heroes and current enthusiastic petty crimes chaser. You'll always be in for a surprise, folks, because Tiger-chan can copy the ability of any NEXT she touches. What will she show us first?"

The camera cut straight to Kaede, catching sight of all three logos on her armor: Rollerblade on her boots, Kadokawa Shoten on her left arm, and Sanrio branded right across her chest. Her armor was a soft pink and mostly just covered her knees, elbows and chest, with a black body suit underneath and a helmet with a tinted visor over her head. Her father had insisted on that one the minute he saw she'd be utilizing rollerblades.

"Careful, Tiger-chan!" Fire Emblem smiled as he ran ahead, his cape flowing behind him. "Our brazen little kidnapper is a NEXT, but no one seems to know what his power is."

"Thanks, but I can take care of myself!" As if to demonstrate, Kaede sped up, rushing past Fire Emblem and only slightly wishing they'd opted for giving her rocket-powered skates. Poor Kotetsu had screamed at the thought, though; even now that she was a teenager, he was still so protective of her. One couldn't necessarily blame him, since for all the training she'd done she still had little control over her powers sometimes. But, in the end, she'd agreed to join Hero TV partly to prove that she wasn't a little girl anymore, and that her father could rest easy in the old age she and Barnaby agreed was coming upon him.

"And it looks like Rock Bison is off to a good start this season! He's taken a hold of the kidnapper and it looks like we already have an arrest!"

Kaede stopped at that, almost knocking into a car that had been abandoned by a panicking citizen. Lights from the helicopters overhead brought her eyes a few rows of cars ahead to Rock Bison, who was holding the criminal up in the air as the woman he'd taken as a hostage fled. Sky High was more than willing to comfort the woman as she burst into hysterics.

"Well that was a let-down." Blue Rose was beside Kaede, her arms crossed and her ice guns in either hand, just hanging loosely as she observed. "I didn't even get to make my entrance." Just as she sighed and was about to go console the hostage, a blinding light flashed and everyone turned back.

The kidnapper was surrounded by some kind of blue aura. It wasn't like the usual glow of a NEXT when they activated their power; it took the form of a ball around him, and all he could do was sneer as Rock Bison slowly crumpled. Once the kidnapper was let loose, all it took was a simple kick from him and Rock Bison was down.

"What a startling upset! Could this be the mysterious NEXT's powers?"

"But what _is_ it?" Blue Rose asked, narrowing her eyes as the man advanced upon Sky High, who was still consoling the hostage.

"Sky High!" Kaede yelled, and before she could decide on anything else, she charged forward, activating the Hundred Power she had absorbed from her father through the hug he gave her right before she set off. She was determined to pile-drive the man before he could do whatever he'd done to Rock Bison to Sky High.

Kaede flinched as she entered the strange ball of energy, but she managed to push the man right into a lamp post before collapsing to the ground, not even thinking that her Hundred Power had been leeched from her with that touch. It wasn't the classiest way to shut down a bad guy, but she was pretty sure saving Sky High (Thank you, Tiger-chan, and again thank you!) got her some points. Blue Rose was the one to arrest the man in the end, however, trapping him to the glassphalt with what was perhaps an overly-enthusiastic amount of ice.

"My ice is a little bit _cold_, but your crime has been put on _hold_!" And her catch phrase never changed over the years. Kaede vaguely remembered her saying something about a poll that determined fans liked it the way it was. Even big corporations knew not to fix something if it wasn't broken, it seemed.

Kaede vaguely registered the blaring voice of the announcer coming from one of the Hero TV helicopters, yelling about Blue Rose making the first arrest of the season, as well as Tiger-chan's wonderful performance in apprehending the criminal. What she was paying more attention to was the ball of energy surrounding her body, exactly the same as the kidnapper's. This was forgotten, however, when she heard Rock Bison groan.

"Are you okay?" she asked, running over to him but careful not to touch him. She still didn't have much control over absorbing powers. She felt a sudden shift in her aura, however, and as soon as Rock Bison was enveloped in it, he groaned in a less painful way and sat up.

"I am, thank you," he said, rubbing at his head even though he still had his helmet on. Kaede breathed a sigh of relief, the relieved look in her eyes hidden behind the tinted visor.

There was the general chaos that always happened when an episode of Hero TV came to a close, but no one seemed to notice Kaede sneak off to the side and sit down in the shadows. Except, of course, her father, who had abandoned the B Team to congratulate his daughter as soon as he'd heard she hadn't died horribly on her first job. Kaede groaned in embarrassment as she saw her father running down the street, giving enthusiastic greetings to his coworkers as he made his way over to her.

He was going for a hug, but he stopped for a second as he came in contact with the energy surrounding his daughter. After a bit, though, he shook his head and picked her up, swinging her around and effectively wiping away whatever power that kidnapper had had. The aura faded from her, and she wasn't sure if she missed it or not.

"Oh, Kaede, look at Daddy's little girl! All grown up and apprehending criminals!" He grinned as he danced them out onto the street, ignoring Fire Emblem's grin and Blue Rose's bemused look. "Someday you'll be just as famous as me."

"Aspiring to be Wild Tiger 1 Minute doesn't aim that high." Fire Emblem nudged Kotetsu playfully as he pulled off his mask. Then he turned to Kaede, who was trying to keep her footing on her rollerblades as her father danced her around. Fire Emblem patted her on the shoulder, and Kaede took the opportunity to scare her father with a burst of flame to get him to let go. "You're learning how to deal with him quite effectively, Tiger-chan."

"Like it's that hard." Kaede rolled her eyes and removed her own head gear, shaking out her flattened hair and frowning. "Where's Mr. Barnaby?"

"Still with the B Squad." Kotetsu grinned sheepishly. "Well, Bunny's Hundred Power hadn't run out when we got word about the criminal being arrested, but mine had. He told me to go if I knew what was good for me."

Two years after Kotetsu and Barnaby had joined the B Squad of Hero TV, Kotetsu's powers weren't much better. They still only lasted about a minute, but every now and then, they wouldn't activate at all. When that happened, Kotetsu was prone to going home looking slightly more tired than usual, made much more obvious since he'd started freeloading at Barnaby's apartment about the time Kaede announced she'd take up Apollon Media's offer to join Hero TV. It made even Kaede, who tried to focus more on her own rise to fame than her father's fall from it, frown.

"Anyway!" Kotetsu waved his hands around as if to wave away the tension that had fallen between him and his daughter. "Your things arrived earlier today, so what do you say we go home so you can unpack? You're starting school tomorrow, too."

Kaede sighed and shook her head, shifting her helmet under her arm. Her father had somehow managed to change out of his suit before meeting her there, but she still had to remove her armor and the bodysuit that was currently making her sweat more than she was comfortable with.

"Okay, Daddy."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

In the year Kotetsu had run of the place, Barnaby's apartment only looked slightly more lived-in than when he'd first seen it. The place just looked entirely too sterile, even with the boxes of Kaede's things sitting in a corner of the main room. Kotetsu looked apologetic as he let them in; Barnaby was not, apparently, home yet.

"Bunny cleared out his office for you, at least." Kotetsu grinned and jammed his thumb over to a couple bookcases full of old volumes. "That's all that was in there, but I doubt you'd like looking at those old things." Kotetsu sighed. "You should feel honored. He still makes me sleep on the couch."

"You're probably not even helping with rent." The first box Kaede dug into was full of manga, various titles from Kadokawa Shoten she was expected to be seen carrying around, since she had a secret identity in name only. That was due to her father's attempts to clear his name three years previously, of course.

Kotetsu frowned and took a title out of the box, flipping through it. "I do more cooking than him."

"Fried rice doesn't count, Daddy," Kaede said, and she plucked the manga from his hands. The cover was colorful, certainly something that would catch her eye if she saw it in a store.

Kotetsu frowned again, but instead of saying anything, he activated his Hundred Power and picked up Kaede's piled boxes.

"Daddy, I can do it myself," Kaede protested as she followed her father down the hall to the second bedroom in the apartment. It was true that it only had two bedrooms, and as Kaede went to look in the one that would be hers, she couldn't help but wonder why Barnaby had made her father sleep on the couch for so long. Even if he wasn't paying any rent, they'd been partners for years, after all.

Her eyes lit up when she saw the giant bed before her, though, already covered in Hello Kitty sheets (probably courtesy of Sanrio). She rushed forward, almost making her father drop her things, and laid down on it. Then she rolled over and said, "Um, Daddy, if this big bed was here, why are you sleeping on the couch?"

"I just bought that, actually." Kotetsu grinned sheepishly. "Saved up all year since you announced you were going to work for Hero TV. The only options I had when I started living here were couch or sleeping with Bunny, and there was no way he'd agree to that."

Kaede considered this as she rolled back along the sheets, savoring their softness. She had to say that her father sleeping in the same bed as Barnaby Brooks Jr. would've made her uncomfortable, but that was mostly due to her increased interest in the Hero fandom since she started her training. She'd read the fanfics. She was broken out of her thoughts with another roll and a look at her father, though. "Daddy? Hasn't it been over a minute by now?"

Kotetsu blinked at that and then looked at his hands. He was still glowing blue even though it had to have been almost two minutes since he'd activated his power. He was, of course, understandably confused. The front door opened, and he looked down the hall to see Barnaby coming in. "Hey Bunny! I gotta ask you something!"

Kaede shook her head. She didn't understand why her father was losing his powers in the first place, so she didn't understand why he'd suddenly get them back. Therefore, she didn't put too much thought into it.

xxx

"It's a really rare power, isn't it?"

Pao-Lin and Karina were standing near the doorway of the Hero's workout gym when Kaede got there after her first day at school. She'd been hounded by classmates, who called her Tiger-chan rather than Kaede even when she told them not to. She was just glad to be around people that wouldn't treat her any differently just because she was a Hero.

"What's a really rare power?"

Karina and Pao-Lin turned to Kaede, smiling in greeting. "Well," Karina said, tossing a water bottle between her hands. "That NEXT we caught last night. They brought him in and Agnes was just here to tell us about his powers. It turns out he has Power Augmentation."

"What does that mean?" Kaede asked as they all headed through. It seemed they were the only ones there right then, but at least that meant Kaede had pretty much free pick of the exercise equipment.

"Well, you saw the effects," Karina said. "When Rock Bison caught him, he just had to activate his powers and he suddenly became very weak. I suppose you could say someone with Power Augmentation can make a NEXT's powers weaker or stronger."

Kaede didn't think much of it as she headed for one of the treadmills, at least until her cell phone went off. She kept running even as she brought it out and read the text. It was her father, saying he'd pick her up later unless she got sent out. Just as she put her phone away, she suddenly had a thought, and she turned to Pao-Lin, who was using the leg press nearby.

"Um, when Karina said you could make a NEXT's powers stronger… do you think that would count for my dad? Like, be able to restore his powers."

"Huh? I guess. Actual potential has nothing to do with it, according to Agnes." When Kaede glanced at the setting for the leg press, she winced when she saw it was over four-hundred pounds. There was a reason Pao-Lin had been recruited at such a young age, she supposed. "Why? Has something happened to Tiger?"

"Ah, just wondering." Kaede smiled and went back to her workout.

xxx

Kotetsu, Kaede decided as she got out of the taxi, was still unreliable. He'd called her up directly to apologize and say he wouldn't be able to pick her up. He'd offered to send Barnaby, but Kaede had refused, saying she didn't want to trouble him. Kotetsu hadn't explained why he couldn't pick her up, but it probably had something to do with the B Team Heroes. Kaede was honestly surprised herself that she hadn't yet been called out.

Of course, she spoke too soon. Just as she went through the front doors of the apartment building, her bracelet went off. She didn't even need to look at it to know she had to get back to Apollon Media and suit up.

She saw the results of the criminal as soon as she skated toward the rendezvous point with the other heroes. Explosions were being set off in skyscraper after skyscraper. It didn't appear to be a NEXT, though, so if they could find the person, it would be easy enough to catch him. Since no one could seem to find him, though, the other heroes were mostly evacuating citizens.

There was a scream that Kaede thought sounded like a little girl, and she whirled around to see she was right. A child maybe half her age was cowering as debris fell all around her. A particularly large piece fell through the air after the most recent explosion, and Kaede sped up. Adrenaline rushed through her and she felt almost like she was skating on air. Rather than save the child, however, she reared up and punched the debris, her body glowing blue from the Hundred Power. It shattered, and the debris scattered harmlessly to the ground.

When she went to console the child, however, something caught her eye. "Come on!" she said, and she picked the child up and put her onto her back as she went. The child clung for dear life as Kaede skated towards the suspicious person she'd spotted.

Sure enough, the man pressed a button, and another explosion was set off. "Found you!" Kaede exclaimed, and the man screamed and dropped the remote. As if on cue, Kaede was surrounded by her fellow Heroes. Kaede gave the hysterical child on her back to Sky High before chasing after the man. It didn't last long, though, because they soon came to the back wall of an alley. He tried to scramble up it, but it was solid, with nothing to hold onto or prop his feet up on.

"Geeze, this was too easy," Kaede said, ignoring the commentary from the Hero TV helicopters, raving about her very first arrest. Her copied Hundred Power was still active, so she was able to hold the man completely off the ground with no effort.

That did not, however, stop him from moving his arms. He reached into the pocket of his trench coat and got yet another controller. It all happened so fast that Kaede had no chance to stop it; he pressed the button, and both buildings forming the alley they stood in exploded somewhere in the middle and started crumbling.

"Tiger-chan!" The heroes started rushing forward, and Kaede screamed and scrunched her eyes closed, waiting for the weight of the buildings to crush her. She even loosened her grip on the criminal, and he managed to scramble over the crumbled wall in front of them, not nearly as panicked as Kaede.

Of course, the debris never came. Or at least, it was taking a very long time. Kaede opened her eyes after a bit to see she had been pulled out of the way, and when she looked up, she was in her father's arms, Kotetsu in full armor and glowing with power.

"Daddy!" she said, relief washing over her tense form. Kotetsu had his face plate down so she couldn't see, but she was sure he was grinning. The alley was completely blocked off by debris from the twin explosions, but if she really squinted through the dust, she could see Barnaby as he held the criminal by the collar of his coat.

Barnaby sounded irritated as he said, "And I thought Wild Tiger caused too much collateral damage."

"Hey, I've gotten better about that!" Kotetsu called as Barnaby stepped over the debris, keeping a firm grip on his capture.

Fire Emblem was the first of the other Heroes to pipe up as the police came in and took the criminal into custody, though he voiced what everyone was probably thinking, "Well, darlings, it's fabulous to see you both, but what are you _doing_ here?"

Kotetsu raised his face plate up and, just as Kaede had expected, he was grinning. "We'll explain later."


End file.
